Fitting the thumb safety, grip safety, hammer, sear is not hard once you learn how to do it. While learning you will probably ruin quite a few parts. By the way, these are critical to safe operation of the gun, so they have to be done right.

You will also need some specialized tools - a medium india stone, a fine stone, some needle files, and a safe-sided retangular file, at a minimum. A 25x scope/hammer & sear jig is extremely helpful.

Fitting the extractor and firing pin stop aren't hard.

Fitting of barrels, links, barrel bushings, and slide to frame can be anything from drop together to requiring a lathe and a milling machine. Depends on how good you want it to be and the kind of parts you want to use.

There are a lot of little mods and tweaks that it helps to know how to do, such as how to fit a trigger bow, how to fit a magazine catch, what parts to polish, etc. The Kuhnhausen books are good, but they are only a starting point.

Between the base gun/frame, parts, tools, reference materials, I don't think $500 is anywhere close to realistic.

i've thought about going that route also, i've realized it's cheaper to buy what you want to start with when it comes to 1911's. JTdistributing/Doublestar makes a great AR kit, haven't seen any of their 1911's yet.

last time i called them, they offered a base model mil spec for around 475.00

Originally Posted By marc1979:i've thought about going that route also, i've realized it's cheaper to buy what you want to start with when it comes to 1911's. JTdistributing/Doublestar makes a great AR kit, haven't seen any of their 1911's yet.

last time i called them, they offered a base model mil spec for around 475.00

it's either build my own, or buy a rock island/charles daly and use the rest of my budget to spiff it up a bit.

Originally Posted By marc1979:i've thought about going that route also, i've realized it's cheaper to buy what you want to start with when it comes to 1911's. JTdistributing/Doublestar makes a great AR kit, haven't seen any of their 1911's yet.

last time i called them, they offered a base model mil spec for around 475.00

it's either build my own, or buy a rock island/charles daly and use the rest of my budget to spiff it up a bit.

thats what i did, bought a RIA, and added all the parts i wanted. next will be on a springer frame and slide.